A bank of lithium ion batteries, installed by Green Charge Networks, feeds power into a Bay Area high school, shaving down its peak demand from PG&E. The Poway Unified School District plans to install similar banks – most of them 250 kilowatts – at 10 schools in early 2016. Photo courtesy of Green Charge Networks

Newsletter: High charges lead school districts to battery power

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Eight years after Mike Tarantino pulled out the stops trying to reduce electricity use across the Poway Unified School District, he still lives with trepidation that a heat wave will spike air conditioning use, or a cold snap will prompt an outbreak of furtive space heaters.

Then electrical use and costs will surge, and the effect will be lasting, making up, for example, more than $38,000 of a total $70,000 one-month electric bill for Del Norte High School last year.

“It is a nasty tier,” Tarantino said.

The higher costs are known as “demand” charges, and Tarantino has done much to avoid them.